No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for November 18th, 2008

How Obama got elected – video and poll

by @ 17:49. Filed under Politics - National.

(H/T – Ed Morrissey)

John Ziegler went out and interviewed a dozen Obama voters right after they voted to find out what they learned from the media coverage of the election season.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm1KOBMg1Y8[/youtube]

For those of you who don’t want to sift through the video (though I recommend it), here’s the short version: The voters, by and large, had no clue who controlled Congress, or who Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Bill Ayers are. While they knew that Sarah Palin had a pregnant teenage daughter and had a $150,000 party-paid wardrobe makeover, and that John McCain didn’t know how many houses he and his wife owned, they were also clueless on who claimed to have campaigned in 57 states (Barack Obama), who won their first election by getting their opponents kicked off the ballot (again Obama), who said that Obama would be tested in his first 6 months by an international crisis (Obama’s running mate Joe Biden), who had to quit a previous campaign because (s)he was caught plagiarizing a speech (Biden again), who said his (or her) policies would bankrupt the coal industry and cause electric rates to skyrocket (Obama).

For those of you who think that a dozen people in Los Angeles aren’t exactly representative of the ObamiNation, Ziegler commissioned a poll from Zogby International of 512 Obama voters nationwide asking those same 12 questions. The results of that poll are mind-blowing.

A majority didn’t know that Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. Worse, while the correct answer was a plurality, a large minority thought that it was the Republicans. No wonder why the Dems increased their majorities despite having historically-low approval ratings.

Also, while the 3 questions regarding Republican “gaffes” all had over 80% of the respondents answering correctly, most of the Democratic “gaffes” had a plurality “not sure” consensus. Indeed, other than the “redistribute the wealth” (the only Dem “gaffe” that had a 80+% correct answer) and a bare-majority-correct “tested by an international crisis” questions (I discount the plurality-correct “start the political career at the home of former Weather Underground members” question because I suspect most of them thought about Perry Sampson and Jeff Masters instead of Bill Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn), no more than 28.2% of the respondents could deliver the right answer.

I would link to today’s Ed Morrissey Show because John was the first-half guest, but there is currently an issue with Ustream’s recording that’s causing things to pass over John’s appearance. John pointed out that we on the right have a serious uphill battle in getting through to the masses. Take a listen to the end of that video, where John asked his dozen volunteers where they get their news – Bill Maher figured into that. Bill Fragging Maher, who has a second-rate comedy show.

I guess we can count “Saturday Night Live” as a “news” source for the ObamiNation as well – an overwhelming majority in both the video and the poll misattributed the Tina Fey “I can see Russia from my house” humor quote to Sarah Palin, when Palin actually said that one could see Russia “from land here in Alaska”.

Left Logic

by @ 5:52. Filed under Miscellaneous.

OK, I admit up front that the title is an oxymoron.  

It didn’t take long following the 35W bridge collapse before the left, unable to bypass another “Bleed it leads” headline, started claiming that lack of funding caused inadequate inspections and thus the bridge collapse. A month had not passed when  a Star and Tribune editorial ran an editorial crying that the bridge collapse proved we needed to pay higher taxes:

The need to acknowledge that, whatever the collapse’s specific cause, Minnesota has allowed its transportation infrastructure to deteriorate to a level that threatens the safety of the public and the future of the economy.

and

The need to comprehensively repair what’s crumbling and start building and funding a transportation system compatible with market demand and the new global realities of energy insecurity and climate change.

The final report on the 35W bridge collapse was issued by the NTSB this week.   The findings, identified early in the process but naysayed by those who wanted a demon, was that the gusset plates were undersized by 50% in the original design.  

Darn, that sure puts a crimp in the whole “we need your money, money, money” meme!

Not to be put off track, the Star and Tribune wrote an editorial this Sunday addressing the NTSB report.   Unable to use the report to further pin the tail on the Republican Donkey Elephant, the Star and Tribune goes the next step and blames the Minnesota Taxpayers:

Last week’s National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) hearings on the cause of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse were dominated by the technical lingo of the investigators. Finite element analysis. Initiation location. Load redundancies. There was also one oft-repeated phrase combining two words rarely used together: “bridge owners.”

A heads-up to all Minnesotans: The NTSB is talking about you. And while it’s hard to think about owning bridges the same way as a home or a car, the reality is that these critical components of daily life belong to the public — not to politicians, not to transportation officials nor any other bureaucrat. Everyone owns them. Everyone shares the responsibility for ensuring they are maintained and cared for.

Um, No!

Can you just imagine the scene that would occur when I decide that I’m concerned about bridge X and that because I am a “bridge owner,” I’m going to stop traffic so that I can crawl around the bridge to give it my examination?   OK, well maybe that wasn’t what the Strib was going for.   However, their notion that we each share a responsibility for the safety of bridges is just as ridiculous.

The problem with the Strib’s thinking, and that of much of the Left’s policies are that at the first sign of trouble, if they can’t immediately pin the problem on a Republican, the next stop is that it’s “everybody’s problem!”   When it’s everybody’s problem than it is the perfect reason not to be left to individual cases but must be dealt with as a blanket issue by the Federal Government.   The left has no ability to deal with personal accountability.   Doubt me?

Abortion – no personal accountability at all.   Abortions must be available all the time for any reason.

Guns – must be banned.   No one individual can be held accountable for their improper use of a gun so no one can have one.

Fairness doctrine – some one may be offended so no one can hear speech that has a different opinion.

Social programs – don’t even get me started!

Education – again, don’t get me started!

The only way that I agree with the Strib is that we as taxpayers hire people to monitor, manage and repair various functions.   We call these people Senators, Congress people, Governors, Presidents etc.   In some cases, like the 35W bridge collapse, it doesn’t appear that there is reason to believe that any of these folks, or the folks they hire and oversee, would have reasonably determined the flaw in the original bridge design.   That said, in most other situations, these same people should be expected to anticipate and correct problems.   Unfortunately, that seems to be happening less and less.   In that case, we taxpayers are “owners” and we need to be more vigilant in holding our elected officials to accountability.

As I used to tell some of my people, “I’ve hired you to do a job and expect you to do it.   I’ll help, coach and support you but I won’t do your job.   If I have to start doing your job, then one of us is no longer needed….and it won’t be me.”

57,58,59 or 60 – It Really Doesn’t Matter

by @ 5:08. Filed under Politics - National.

Some parts of the Country, political junkies and all the D.C. insiders are holding their breath awaiting the result of the Alaskan absentee count, the Minnesota recount and the Georgia runoff.   All actions that will determine Senate representation in those states.   The results will also determine whether the Democrats have 57, 58, 59 or the magical 60 votes.  

Here’s a news flash, the remaining 3 elections don’t matter.

Well, I guess they do matter if you’re into the community soccer “we’re all winners” kind of scoring.   However, in terms of running the Senate or holding the Democrats from running wild on their agenda, the results don’t matter.

Don’t believe me?

Let’s assume the Republicans hold the last three races.   Let’s look at a few issues and see if the Democrats can get them moved through.   Remember, it only takes 3 RINO defections to join the Democrats and the Democrats can cease debate and move to a vote.

Global warming – Specter, Coleman and McCain are all firm believers in man made global warming.  

Off Shore drilling – Coleman, Collins and Graham are just 3 of the 10 Republicans who were willing to give away any real ability to drill because they saw political advantage.

Illegal amnesty – McCain, Graham and Kyl were the ringleaders on the last go around.   I don’t expect they’ve found any reason to change their positions.

Abortion issues – Snowe, Collins and Specter are all pro choice.

There’s a part of me that  wishes the Dems would get their 60 votes.    Even at 59, Reid and his ilk will continue to stand in front of microphones and whine about “Republican obstructionists,” after which, he’ll cry “Buuuuuuuuuuuush.”   At 60, all of that goes away and the Dems will have no one but themselves to look.

Regardless of the outcome of the three remaining elections, the Dems will have full control of  Washington on nearly every issue that comes up.   After all, it’s not like this election has made the RINO an endangered species, it’s just made them a little less likely to blend into the background.

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